One of the simplest ways to help improve wikiHow is to fix spelling errors. The wikiHow Spell Checker identifies possible spelling mistakes in articles, but these still need reviewing to see if they're real errors or not, especially when newer words, brand names, and foreign words come into play. Always check each word through an internet search and, if the word is found to be valid, let the Spell Checker know by clicking No. That way, the next time the Spell Checker sees the word, if others approve it, it will know that it is correct and not put the word back in Spell Check.

Steps

1

Go to the Spell Checker tool. This is located here and is also available on the Community Dashboard.

2

Review the highlighted word. The potentially misspelled word is highlighted in red and presented at the top of the tool, in a "snippet" from the article itself.

You can also check over the title and scroll down to read the whole article so that you can spot any other mistakes and see the word in more context, if it helps you.

3

Use Quick Edit to make overall article fixes, if you want to. Pressing "Quick Edit" will open up an editing window to make other changes. This isn't a requirement, but if you want to make more changes, please do so!

You'll need to do this before clicking "Yes, I'll fix it," "No" or "Not sure" on the given word, because otherwise the tool will move you on to a new word/article.

Click "Publish" to make your changes.

After Quick Editing an article, you will still be asked to fix the highlighted word or mark it as acceptable as is. If you've already removed the given word in your Quick Edit, don't worry - your vote won't re-edit the article. It will just allow the word to be whitelisted if it would be okay in other articles/contexts.

4

Decide if the word is correct or not.

If you're not sure, press "Not sure" to move on to the next word.

If you're positive the word is okay in context, click "No." After several votes that the word is all right as is, it will be whitelisted so that the Spell Checker "learns" it for future.

If you know it's a mistake and you can fix it, click "Yes, I'll fix it."

5

Fix the word as needed. When you click "Yes I'll fix it," the word will become editable. You can correct it however you need to; it's a good idea to use a dictionary or do a quick web search to make sure you get it just right.

During this step, only the highlighted word is fixable. If you want to make other changes to the article, click "Cancel" and then "Quick Edit" to make other adjustments.

Click "Save & Next" to save the word and move on to a new potential error.

Tips

Remember to pay attention to frequent misspellings and false contractions, like alot (which should be written "a lot").

If, while spell-checking, you see a case where there's an error in the article title as well, it's a good idea to Quick Edit the article to include title change template so that the error can be fixed in the title, too.

If you come across an article that keeps showing up in the Spell Checker because of symbols (which are sometimes unable to be added to the Spell Checker words whitelist), let Anna know so that the whole article can be excluded from the tool.

Be aware that not all highlighted words will be mistakes. Foreign words, technical terms, web addresses and other sets of words might show up red but don't necessarily need fixing. If you're certain they're okay, just select, "No, it's correct."

Be aware that there may be mistakes that the computer cannot find. For example, if someone uses "there" instead of "their," it won't be highlighted.

The Spell Checker doesn't understand what accents are, so words with accents are automatically highlighted. Words like "Pokémon", "piñata" and "décor" are commonly marked as wrong, but they are indeed correct.

Warnings

Do not modify anything in brackets, such as image links, category names, related wikiHows, etc., even if they are spelled wrong. Any spelling changes will create broken links in articles.

Never change any formatting or spelling errors in the "Related wikiHows" section of the site (nor should you be changing any of the subsection headers spellings, if the app gets confused). These links link directly to the article, and will change the link once changed (thereby unlinking the article).